Lost, which has just been added to Netflix in the US, has the most misunderstood finale of all time.
The final ever scenes of Lost are intercut between events on the island and an alternate timeline known as the flashsideways – scenes that replace the flashbacks and flashforwards for the entire final season.
These flashsideways scenes present a purgatory-of-sorts, where these characters come to when they eventually do die whenever that may be.
So, to clear up the confusion: in the flashsideways scenes, these characters are dead.